Two short podcasts about Museums at Night

I was recently interviewed by Terence Eden for his About a Minute podcast, which is a short burst of someone sharing their enthusiasm for a project they think is interesting.

In Episode 15, I introduce the Museums at Night festival.

And in Episode 17, I discuss being part of the group fall into the sea that artist Amy Sharrocks led at Swansea Museum during the festival last year.

Artist Amy Sharrocks leads people towards the sea for a mass fall into the water (c) Kaan Ucele Photography

Promote your museum or gallery on the podcast!

Terence is currently looking for more people to appear on his podcast – so if your museum or gallery is doing something interesting and you’re happy to talk about it for 60 seconds, he’d love to hear from you. Here are all the ways you can contact him.

When is Museums at Night in 2016, 2017 and 2018?

If you’re planning your long term calendar and would like to know the dates of the Museums at Night festival for the next 4 years, here you go:

Thursday 14 – Saturday 16 May 2015
Thursday 12 – Saturday 14 May 2016
Thursday 18 – Saturday 20 May 2017
Thursday 17 – Saturday 19 May 2018

We’re particularly excited about 2016: the last time the Museums at Night festival included a Friday 13th, lots of museums and heritage sites programmed ghost tours, paranormal evenings and showcased the sinister side of their collections.

These were easy to promote in the media – so if you want to take advantage of this marketing opportunity in 2016, be sure to start taking photos of your spooky objects and events now!

An atmospheric candlelit photo from the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall

A Curious Night at the Booth Museum

This is a terrific review of a well-thought-out after-hours event held recently at the Booth Museum in Brighton, written by Brighton Museums’ latest blogger-in-residence. The event title is immediately intriguing – A Curious Night of the Slightly Strange – and in fact this atmospheric event quickly sold out. Read on to find out more:

Intro to Culture24 and Museums at Night!

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to various heritage sector events over the last 6 weeks, talking about Culture24 and Museums at Night. I wanted to share the resources and a helpful introductory presentation here, so you can see the sort of information I give out and download the handouts for yourself.

Museums Norfolk Development Day: Using events to engage visitors and generate income 

I introduced Culture24’s various services and some of our current initiatives with this one-page Culture24 contact handout.

I explained how museums can get started using Culture24’s DDE database to showcase events and exhibitions, with this one-page introduction to Culture24’s DDE.

Finally, I discussed how even the smallest heritage venues could successfully take part in Museums at Night and attract publicity in a mini-marketing masterclass.

 

SHOWCASE: South East Museum Development conference

Rosie at Brooklands Museum, image courtesy Scott Ramsey Photography

I took part in this fascinating day at historic Brooklands Museum, talking about how museums could take advantage of Culture24’s services, and run successful events for Museums at Night. I was really pleased to meet so many people in person who read my newsletters, and who I’d only had email contact with before!

Museomix

I also took part in the brilliant three-day Museomix hackathon at Derby Silk Mill and Derby Museum & Art Gallery – here are the terrific remixed collection objects the 7 teams developed over the weekend: http://www.museomix.org/en/localisation/derby-2014/#prototypes

As Community Manager I welcomed people who were new to the heritage hackathon experience. I created new content, sourcing stories and interviewing museum staff to provide features for the MuseomixUK Tumblr; helped the teams to post images and thoughts to their own Tumblrs; highlighted interesting digital content from others; and helped with idea generation and prototype development – I’d recommend the experience to anyone!